Ireland: Ahead of the game

As he walked past Shonagh Daly, queuing to audition in Cork for one of his London West End musicals, Andrew Lloyd Webber caught the music student’s eye and smiled. Lloyd Webber and Madeleine, his wife, were dropping in on the open call for The Beautiful Game. As soon as he spotted Daly, the composer was smitten.

Summoning her ahead of the other hopefuls in the queue, Lloyd Webber listened intently, giggling boyishly, as Daly ran through one of his songs in the audition room. He was, as he later admitted, stunned, not only by what he called her Britney Spears looks but also by the perfect pitch of the 20-year-old’s voice.

The chance meeting four years ago led to a place in the chorus of The Beautiful Game, but more importantly it was the beginning of Lloyd Webber’s interest in Daly, which has propelled her from audition line to the